Sugar + Salt = SNOW!

Our weather has oscillated between pleasant and downright fridged. When getting cold gets old we come inside and make our own snow.

This sugar etch-a-sketch has gotten a lot of use at our house. Just pour some sugar in a cake pan and use it to practice writing all kinds of things: letters, numbers, math, words, etc.

Then just shake it and you have a fresh pallet. Tip for Tots: If you are teaching how to write, it works best if you have your own cake pan of sugar. Then you can demonstrate and your Tot can follow along. Also, it is sweet, so if you need a built-in-reward go for a quick lick after each one is completed :)

We used the sugar etch-a-sketch for a while and then I walked out of the room. When I came back this is what I found:

Is the cougar (aka "squirrel" cozy in the snow? At least it isn't too cold!We got out the green "tree" marshmallows to make a little forest. Those trees didn't last very long!
These Lava Legs are on my must-have list for winter. Cute with anything and perfectly fun and functional. We have worn a lot more skirts this winter thanks to these beauties.

We learned about how to make snow from salt here. There are more complete directions there too. I'm too lazy to type more, sorry!One cup water

1/4 cup salt.

Get it to boiling.

Pour into a bowl

Add food coloring if desired.

Decide your string shape and put it in.TIP! Don't let the ends of the string get wet! It ruins it. Over time the water evaporates and your salt crystals (AKA snow) form on the string. Ours made a nice little green snowflake!

These little paper dolls are sooo fun! You may have a different opinion, but I like them because they aren't very gender specific. So Kay and Jay could both play with them. Today we dressed them nice and warm. To get your own, go HERE. You can dress them with whatever is around the house: paper, fabric scraps, yarn, ribbon, etc. We got some ready for church on Sunday too!

Need one more sugar/snow idea? Here is a February SnowLADY in all her PINK snow glory! It is more fun to use the colored marshmallows!

We used a tooth pick to hold the marshmallows together. But you could also just use frosting if you have kids eating them and are worried they'll hurt themselves.Icing for the face and buttons:

Add the candy (this was Jay's FAVORITE part)

I used 2 pieces of black felt (front and back) with a toothpick frosted between them to hold the hat on. We chopped the end of a candy corn off for her nose later, but the camera was put away. There you go. A snowLADY!
Stay warm with some fun Little Projects!